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American Morning

Interview with William Colarulo

Aired July 24, 2002 - 07:08   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: We want to get more now on what Philadelphia police call an amazing little girl, 7-year-old Erica Pratt, kidnapped yesterday by two men, who later made ransom demands, about $150,000, according to some reports. Erica managed to escape last evening, and has been reunited with her family.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: Did the police call you to let you know?

SERINA GILLIS, ERICA PRATT'S MOTHER: Yes, he let the whole family know.

QUESTION: And what did they say about how she (UNINTELLIGIBLE)?

GILLIS: She's OK, she's fine. She's safe, that's all we're worrying about. She's home!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: Just a few moments ago, I talked with the Philadelphia police inspector, William Colarulo, about the frightening ordeal and the search now for suspects.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

INSP. WILLIAM COLARULO, PHILADELPHIA POLICE: Well, her condition is tremendous. This was a -- this was really a remarkable story, Bill. It's just, you know, you hear about the tragedies in California and Utah, and I mean, as a police officer, you know, as a community, we were hoping for the best, but we were getting ready for the worst. But thank god, everything turned out great.

HEMMER (on camera): She was gone for about 24 hours. What were the conditions like in the basement of that house?

COLARULO: Well, you know, if I could just give you a quick summary. When she was snatched off the street Monday night, when these two guys grabbed her, the first thing they did was they duct taped her eyes, they wrapped duct tape around her head. When they dragged her into the car, they took her into this house on Lowden (ph) Street, the 1200 block of Lowden (ph) Street in North Philadelphia. They put her into an abandoned house. There was absolutely no electricity, no utilities were working, the place was a complete pigsty. They put her in the cellar, then they duct taped her ankles together and her hands together.

This is a 7-year-old girl we are talking about, and what Erica Pratt was able to do, she actually chewed through the duct tape to free her hands. Then she was able to crawl out of the cellar, kick open a door, and then break a window and scream for help.

She was eventually rescued, because passersby, kids playing in the neighborhood, went and got a couple of police officers about two blocks away.

HEMMER: Wow! That is amazing. The men who were in that home, they had fled. Do you know why?

COLARULO: Well, you know, when they first abducted her, Bill, maybe 20 minutes later, the family started to get telephone calls demanding $150,000 ransom. Now, these are the two individuals we are looking at. This is James Burns right here, and this is Edward Johnson. We are in the process of getting arrest warrants for them, and I am confident that we're going to able to lock them up today, and then we are going to see how tough they really are.

HEMMER: Do you think that they had left that home to abandon her, or to flee for their own lives? There is one report that perhaps they saw some of those mug shots that you just showed us on the local television, and perhaps that's the reason they left. Do you have a reason as to why now?

COLARULO: Well, you know, that's a possibility, because when she was in that house, she was left abandoned and alone for pretty much the entire day, for almost a 24-hour period. Indications are that she was left for dead, that they weren't going to come back. Whatever their reasons were, you know, we'll have to -- we'll just have to speculate until we catch these guys.

HEMMER: There was also a report that the family had recently claimed a $150,000 insurance claim. Is that the motive, the premise from which you are working right now? Or is there more to it than that?

COLARULO: Well, you know, Bill, right now, we are still in the initial stages of putting our puzzle together, the pieces of the puzzle together. Our No. 1 priority was obviously to find Erica Pratt safely. We have done that, and now our next priority is to grab these two guys, and anyone else that may be involved. That is one of the areas we are looking at. Supposedly there was a rumor that the family came into some kind of money. I don't know that to be true right now, but the bottom line is the motive was for cash.

HEMMER: Did the two suspects know the neighborhood? Do you know if they knew Erica or other members of her family?

COLARULO: Well, again, you know, we have reason to believe that they are known to the family, only because shortly after they kidnapped Erica, the family started getting telephone calls, so they knew a phone number. We don't have any reason to believe that Erica gave them the phone number. So you know, we're assuming that they were known to the family or known to the area.

HEMMER: Bill Colarulo, inspector, Philadelphia Police -- thank you for your time this morning, sir, and best of luck to you going forward.

COLARULO: Thank you.

HEMMER: All right.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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